To think it was monday
by scarfganini
Summary: everyone hates mondays. Temari's got nothing to do, and has been dragged to Konoha against her will. so she finds herself a quiet aquarium, and look who else found it. maybe mondays aren't so bad. small romance drabble thing. pairing: Shikamaru and Temari


Dianna and I have been writing little drabbles for our favorite pairings together lately, and I got this idea this morning while we were having a sleepover, and decided I wasn't going to let her in on this one. So I went home and wrote it, (well, I went to the library as well, and read a lot, which means I wasn't writing the whole time... or even most of the time...) It's Temari and Shikamaru, which was fun to write.

and Dianna, since you _are_ reading this, (right?) we will be writing a story for this pairing soon, oh yes. but I really wanted to write this one. sorries...

I had also noticed recently that all my romance writing, there's a certain amount of chivalry in all of it, the men always seem to be the ones making moves. (Because I think it's awesome when they do.) But that's unfair to us females, who have just as much assertive power as men. And who better to change suit with than Temari?

Disclaimer, I don't own the characters, nor the story, etc, the usual.

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It was an early Monday; class had just started in Konoha.

But then again, Temari wasn't from Konoha. And in Suna, it was a holiday week for some dead guy. Temari'd never bothered to learn the exact history, all it was to her was a week in which she didn't have to do anything. And she was just fine with that.

But Kankurou had absolutely insisted on dragging her to Konoha. He'd tried to rope Gaara into it as well, but Gaara was busy. (Or so he said. Temari had strong suspicions he just didn't want to come.)

About five minutes after arriving, however, Kankurou had run off somewhere deep into the city, leaving Temari to wander about on her own. And since the city was hard at work, there weren't many people in the streets.

She wandered aimlessly on the outskirts of town, until she found herself outside a small aquarium. Fingering the money in her pocket, the large '_yes, we're open!_' sign caught her eye. She shrugged to herself and went to buy admission.

Despite the outer appearance of the aquarium, it was very nice. Larger than it looked from the outside, too. Not surprisingly, however, it was very empty. No one seemed to be free but her today, and even if they were, she doubted they would find this dingy place from the exterior design.

Having just come from a brilliantly colored coral reef exhibit, a sign pointing towards the end of the building she had not explored stood out from the painted blue wall.

A jellyfish exhibit.

Interest perked, Temari followed the arrow's directions and headed for the east wing.

The jellyfish display was amazing. There were entire rooms with water-filled cases for walls, jellyfish everywhere you looked. There were large, floaty white ones, poisonous looking bright pinks, and itty-bitty jellyfish that looked as though the slightest current would blow them away. There were even some whose tentacles looked as though they were growing fungus.

Looking up at the ceiling, she stepped quietly into the next room. Even the domed ceiling had jellyfish floating lazily about amongst the deep blue water. It was so quiet in here... she felt like the slightest breath might break the atmosphere into a million tiny pieces, so she kept quiet and still and let her gaze wander down the walls. The room wasn't all that large, but the effect was such that the room seemed to stretch forever. Breathtaking.

And lying on the floor, looking left-behind and forgotten, was an annoyingly familiar face.

Shikamaru's eyes were staring motionlessly upwards, simply watching the Jellyfish float aimlessly. He looked obnoxiously serene, something had to be done.

"Well what do you know?" Temari said loudly, and slightly smugly, causing Shikamaru to start and look over towards her in amazement and annoyance. "I knew I'd find spineless drifters here, but I think I found more than I had bargained for!"

Shikamaru sighed, and pulled himself up with what seemed like incredible effort. "Oh, it's _you_," He said, with exaggerated exasperation.

"Aw, come on, you know you love me," Temari teased.

"Yup, and the sky is falling."

Temari smiled mockingly. "Well, chicken little, shouldn't you be doing something? Haven't you got some seminar on the way birds stay in the air?"

"I cut the seminar."

"What, you actually had a seminar?"

"Yup. And FYI, birds stay in the air by balancing the forces of lift and weight."

"You, obviously, have no balance of these forces, as you were here with your backside glued to the floor."

Shikamaru just watched her tiredly.

"Well," Temari continued. "You are getting nowhere by staying here. That's it, I've decided, you're touring the rest of the aquarium with me."

"I've seen the whole thing." Shikamaru told her in protest, having been very relaxed in the silence and tranquility.

"I haven't, show me around then."

Shikamaru shook his head in a resigned fashion. "I give in, let's go." He told her, figuring it would be more trouble than it was worth to argue his point. "Where've you been so far?"

Temari grinned deviously. "I just got here. You have to show me the whole thing." Which, of course, was a lie. She had seen the majority of the aquarium already.

"Well then, I suppose we ought to start," Shikamaru suggested lazily, gesturing towards the door leading through the last room of the Jellyfish exhibition, which was full of stringy looking jellyfish, a mellow shade of green, looking almost glow-in-the-dark.

As Shikamaru led the way through the aquarium, he began to explain the habits of some of the fish, pointing out unusual features that Temari never would have noticed on her own. It made her wonder, how much time did he spend simply observing? More than she ever did. Most of the things he told her were in fact, fascinating. In general, trivia bored Temari. She liked to be out in the field, with physical challenges, someone to fight. But Shikamaru knew things that made her wonder if she had underestimated him. Him and his way of taking in details, small things that made all the difference.

Temari looked over to a small tank on a stand in the middle of a kelp forest display. There were two odd looking fish swimming around in it. They were white-ish, and appeared to suck on the glass with their odd, over-exaggerated mouths. "What are these?" she asked, because they were both funny and mildly creepy.

Shikamaru looked up form where he had been watching a school of fish swim in unison, the sun flashing off their scales as one when they turned. "Those?" he asked, coming up beside her. "Look, it says here, they're Kissing Gourami, or kissing fish. They're usually kept as pets, but the old man what owns this place had some when he was young, and couldn't resist keeping a few on showcase. These are pretty small, actually," He added as an afterthought. "I heard somewhere that they can grow to over a foot."

Temari laughed. "Kissing fish, huh?" she told him. "Well, their form sucks. How do they kiss with mouths like that?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "You've got quite the mouth as well, I could ask you the same."

"What, you want to know how I kiss?"

"Bet you suck, with that gaping hole in your head."

"Oh yeah?" Temari challenged. "We'll just see about that!" she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled his face towards hers, and before he could do anything about it, She had pushed her lips up against his.

And, too surprised to do anything about it, Shikamaru let her. (He couldn't help joining in a bit, either...)

When she finally pulled back, a self-satisfied smirk playing on her lips, Shikamaru looked too stunned to say anything.

"So?" Temari taunted maddeningly. "How was my 'gaping hole'? I didn't kill you, did I?"

Shikamaru looked deep in thought, rubbing his lips pensively, as though they were sore. "I seem to have survived." He said slowly. "Don't know how together I am."

"You're fine." Temari rolled her eyes.

"Fine indeed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Temari asked, hands on hips. "You want more?"

Shikamaru looked at her, as if contemplating something of great importance. "Is that a viable offer?"

Temari grinned. "Only as much as you want it to be."

"Let's say I wanted it to be."

Grabbing his forearm, she pulled him closer. "Hold on tight, it's gonna be a wild ride." She whispered smugly.

And those were the last words spoken for quite a while.

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There you go, that's it. if you thought this was awesome, you need to go read the drabble Dianna and I have been writing. They rock. (although our views on placement and vocabulary can vary, so they are a little different. Awesome, though.) We haven't actually posted anything yet, because you can't for two days, so in two days go check out chibieites forever.

...BZZT

yeah...please review. I don't know if you dislike spending three seconds typing in a word or two, but it matters a whole lot to me whether or not you liked my story, and I'll never even know you read it if you don't tell me.


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